Intercropping With Aromatic Plants Increased the Soil Organic Matter Content and Changed the Microbial Community in a Pear Orchard.

Intercropping influences the soil microbiota via litter and root exudate inputs, but the mechanisms by which root exudates mediate the soil microbial community and soil organic matter (SOM) are still unclear. In this study, we selected three aromatic plants (, Tr1; , Tr2; , Tr3) as intercrops that separately grew between rows of pear trees, and no plants were grown as the control in a pear orchard during the spring-summer season for 3 years. The soil from each plot was collected using a stainless-steel corer by five-point sampling between rows of pear trees.